The Concept of Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

ABSTRACT

Mother is a glorious figure in one person’s life. It is the prestigious mercy God given only for woman. The relationship between mother and children is described as everlastingly bond that cannot be substituted with another relationship. But in reality this glorious position is sometimes humbled and assumed as the great tool to judge woman as the second sex, as what society has constructed. Many cases prove that there are still many marital rapes, woman abused, and rebellious children existed. However, mother existence still needs the more appropriate respect and appreciation from the society. Therefore, a study which focuses on this glory of being a mother is conducted by the researcher.

Here, the researcher chooses Toni Morrison’s Beloved as the object of analysis concerning with these problems: (1) The concept of motherhood portrayed in Toni Morrison’s Beloved (2) The factors influence the concept of motherhood portrayed in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

This research is categorized as a literary criticism, since the researcher conducted the interpretation and analysis on literary work, that is, Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The researcher uses feminism approach in doing the analysis in order to optimally focus on the role of woman character in the efforts to struggle protecting her children from the tradition of slavery. From the analysis, the researcher finds many concepts of the motherhood reflected by Black mother slave in her way to protect her children from the harassment of African slavery. As a mother, this major character has done any struggles to
protect her children from the rudeness. As found in the novel, the forms of insolent African slavery that finally influence the concept of motherhood reflected by the mother slave in her way of protecting her children are racial discrimination, prejudice, segregation, violence, and slave trade. Those all forms successfully turn the motherhood up as far as it becomes the main focus in this study. However, as the novel written by the most prominent feminist author, Beloved really reflects the battle of mother slave who hardly struggle against the African slavery harassment, without a husband stands behind, portraying some obvious concepts of motherhood influenced by the rudeness of African slavery.